A data center may be defined as a location, for instance, a room that houses computer systems arranged in a number of racks. These racks are configured to house a number of computer systems which typically include a number of printed circuit boards (PCBs), mass storage devices, power supplies, processors, micro-controllers, and semi-conductor devices, that dissipate relatively significant amounts of heat during their operation. As such, the computer systems often consume a great deal of energy in performing various computing functions.
Air conditioning units are often provided to cool the computer systems. In cooling the computer systems, the air conditioning units also consume a great deal of energy. In fact, it is estimated that the burdened cost of power for the computer systems, the cooling systems, as well as other devices that require electrical energy, is approximately 30% of the total cost of ownership of a typical data center.
One approach to reducing the energy costs, as well as, to reduce impact on the environment, has been to use renewable energy, such as, solar power and wind power, to power the computer systems and the air conditioning units. Conventional approaches to relying on renewable energy, however, often suffer from various drawbacks. For instance, when the amount of renewable energy drops, such as, when clouds block solar collectors, the computing performance as well as the air conditioning unit performance also drops. Although this drop in performance may be acceptable for some applications, it is not a viable solution for most, more critical applications.